Remembering

Today marks the second anniversary of my Dad going home to be with the Lord. My Mom and my siblings are in Maine today visiting him and then they will all go to lunch together...so nice to be together. I was there last year, but circumstances had me travel earlier in the summer, so I'm not with them this year. He's in my thoughts, remembered and loved...always.

I made this card for my Mom. My favorite lighthouse in all the world...the Portland Headlight. It's so classic and beautiful with the red roof. I'm sure she'll love it and notice my tie to home.

I stamped the image with StazOn and then watercolored it. I cut out around the image a bit on both the top and the bottom to make it pop a bit. Added the Riding Hood Red red ribbon and the flower to really enhance the roof. And I put the slightest layer of the Riding Hood Red underneath the first DP layer to just grab the color a bit more. I love RED!!!

Set: Portland Head stamp (non-SU), Warmest Regards
Accessories: BellaBirds DP, Whisper White, Bordering Blue & Riding Hood Red cardstocks, Prima, Riding Hood Red Ribbon, Various SU Ink Pads w/Aqua Painter, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch & Sponge

Tropical Birthday

Thinking about all the kids going back to school and the fact that fall is right around the corner, I thought I would make my latest birthday card more tropical. One of the gals in my blogger group is celebrating her birthday this week, and hoping that she has it in hand now, or soon...I thought I would post it up for you. Happy Birthday Kim:Ozziepuddles.

This is one of SUs retired sets that I just love and don't use often enough. I pulled out some retired colors to go with it, why not, right? I stamped the flowers and the leaf in the color I wanted and then restamped (using my ol' Stamp A Ma Jig) in Versamark so that I could clear emboss them. I know I could've done the easier route and just put the Versmark all over the image but then it would have embossed all the white spots and I wanted those clear. And then I popped them up. I also embossed the tree.

I stamped the sentiment right on the twill and sponged some color around the tree.

Set: Do The Hula, Warmest Regards
Accessories: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Cool Caribbean cardstocks/inks, Pink Pirouette ribbon, Certainly Celery Twill, Clear EP, Ticket Corner Punch, Markers and Sponges.

Time to Organize

Hello again! What a busy summer we have been having. I'm almost glad it is coming to an end. My daughter is starting high school this fall, and unlike many schools that have already started or will start very soon, she will not start until the Tuesday after Labor Day...I think that is 9/8....too far off, lol. She's been enjoying her summer, though, so I guess an extra week or two is good for her.

I have felt very displaced this summer. With all that has been going on, I just cannot get my head straight, but I think I am starting to unwind....and I have been organizing, so that always makes me feel better. Hubby calls me Monica from FRIENDS all the time. I take it as a compliment.

If you look back in the archives to last year...I posted some pics of my craft room. When we were in Japan I got a couple of metal shelving units that I never really liked, but it is what I was able to get at the time....we have now relocated them to the shed, and hubby has done his own bit of organizing in there.

Anyway, I searched Craigslist and found this Billy Bookcase from IKEA for a steal. It's great with the glass doors that will keep things dust-free. And my daughter got a new bookcase for her room so I took her white ones and stacked them. I feel much more together now! I even sorted through my stamp sets and found a couple I might be able to part with...it isn't easy you know. But, I'll put those on my sales page when I can.

On my trip to Maine, a couple weeks back, I was finally able to bring back my second paper rack and now I have them stacked and my papers have their own slot instead of being doubled up!! Yippee!!! I have a spot under each color family for a container that I put my scrap pieces in. I have one of those for each family and am searching to get some for my neutrals to. I do keep my In-Colors separate, but that's ok.

And lastly...I don't think I posted this before, but I rigged up a sticker rack as well. This I did a couple months ago and it is so nice to have my stickers out where I can see them. When things are hidden, I don't use them.

Now that I'm decluttered...I'm off to get inky!!
Have a great day and a wonderful week!!!

Warm Appreciation

My birthday was last month and during the month of July I was fortunate enough to receive a few RAKs from friends on SCS....so here they are, with warm appreciation.

The first comes from my wonderful friend Katrina (tiki.nz on SCS), we are actually in-person friends :) I haven't been lucky enough to meet any of the others I'll list. Look at all the detail work on this explosion box, it's beautiful!!

This next one comes from Judi (Stamparooni on SCS), the more I see this set, I wish I had it! Love the colors.

This next one was from Karen (Brad's Mom on SCS) I just love how she added the dimension with the extra swirls on the tree!

And many of you know this next person....she is on our Ocean's 11 blog roll....known as Adventures from the Monkey Hut. I love the shimmery white paper and the embossed image, so very pretty and classy.

Thank you to all. I'm very touched. I hope to be back stamping next week....until then, enjoy your summer!!

Summer Time Thinking

In the heat of summer I think of being out at the lake. Any lake. I love waking up hearing the Loons....listening to the water crash against the rocks. It's so calming and cool....for those of us dealing with 90* and higher!

I know my hubby likes to get out fishing. So, I pulled out one of my favorite retired sets, Angler...and got it inky.

I took the idea of the circles from franb63 on SCS, you can see her card here, then I made it my own. I used my Water Color Crayons, as Fran did...she gave me that idea too ;) I really love using the Watercolor Paper when I use my Aqua Painters. It doesn't always work, since it's a Very Vanilla color, but it really makes whatever water medium that you are using, just flow across the paper with no piling.

I couldn't find any designer paper, in my enormous stash, that would work for fishing, so I used some textured paper and also made my own background paper with one of the Angler stamps.

Enjoy!!

Set: Angler, Warmest Regards
Accessories: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive (Textured)& Very Vanilla cardstocks, Watercolor paper, Watercolor Crayons, Aqua Painter, 1 3/4" circle punch, Circle Scissors Plus, Sponge, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive and Staz On Black inks, Jumbo Eyelets (Antique Brass) and my trusty cutter kit.

Feeling the love--twice over

I was so excited to see that I was presented with not one but two blog awards! Kathy sent me the first one while I was MIA and then I just noticed that Siobhan had one listed for me as well. I'm very touched that I have bloggie friends out there that are enjoying my blog.

Now to pass them along...I've tried to find bloggies that didn't already have these on their blogs, so that new people can be as excited to receive the awards as I was....if you already have one and I missed it....you are just blessed again ;)

Thank you so much for thinking of me Kathy, Stampinmn

Now...pass on this Blog Award to appreciate the following bloggers.

There a couple of fun "rules" (well, more like guidelines) to this award:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

My 15 awards go to:

1. Dell @ DaDoodleDiva

2. Ramona @ Inkpressed

3. Mary @ on Life and Creating

4. Kim @ OzziePuddles

5. Stephanie @ Paper Crafter Thoughts

6. Katrina @ kats' kreations

7. Melissa @ In Samping Mode

8. Amy @ Not just another stamping blog

9. Holly @ Create Something Everyday

10. Val @ Stampin' and Scrappin' Val

11. Shanna @ The Stamping Banana

12. Jennifer @ Jennifer's Stampin Pad

13. Sarah @ Stampin' with Sarah

14. Robin @ Stamping Country

15. Michelle @ Inspiration Blooms

The Lemonade Stand: "Choose seven ladies who according to this award show an attitude of gratitude"

Thank you so much, Siobhan at the Monkey Hut !

I would like, in turn, to give this award to:



1. Diane @ Diane's Designes

2. Elizabeth @ Life as I know it

3. Karen @ Saved by grace

4. Leslie @ Creative Crafting

5. Rebekka @ A Diamond in the Rough

6. Dawn @ Rubber Room

7. Mary @ My Stampin' Hide-away

Enjoy!!!

You Float My Boat

Ahhhhhhh, what a feeling. It feels to good to get back into my stamp room and getting inky once again! I've been away from it for so long, feels like forever!! My mother-in-law visited for 3 weeks (our guest room is my office/craft room) and then I spent the last week getting my daughter ready to go visit with her dad for a couple weeks....so now I finally had some ME time and it felt great. Not only that, but it's MY BIRTHDAY today! Yup, another year older...am I wiser? Not sure, lol. But, it's my first birthday with my little baby boy in my arms, so that is special!

Anyway...off to the reason that you are visiting...I got the set Boatloads of Love to go with all my other Loads of Love goodies. It had been on my wish list for quite some time and I finally bought it when it hit the retired list in June. So now it's been christened and ready for launching...did I use Champagne? Nope, but StazOn ink works just as well.

Now in the new catalog they've added yet another coordinating set for the Loads of Love series, this one is Loads of Fun and with a trailer, snow mobile etc, it will certainly be on my list too!!

I had fun with this card. I marked the buoys with eyelets, cut out and added dimension to the puffs of smoke and the dingy...and placed the big 'ol heart in the dingy. My sailor hubby is making me a cake for my birthday and so I guess he Floats My Boat :) All I care is that it's chocolate.

I used my retired cloud stencil and even stippled some Saffron in there to make it appear as though the sun is shining through a bit.

Set: Boatloads of Love
Accessories: Bella Birds DP, Watercolor Paper, Brocade Blue & Confetti White cardstock, Rich Regals eyelets, hemp twine, ticket corner punch, Pink Pirouette 1 1/4" grosgrain, StazOn, SU Inks: Bordering Blue, Going Gray, Basic Gray, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Bravo Burgundy, Aqua Painter, Stipple brush, cloud stencil

For those keeping up on my little guy...he's now 7 1/2 months old. He's able to get into and out of a sitting position and is doing the army crawl. He's always up on his hands/toes and looks like he could just pop into a walking position, but he's just not ready yet. He wants to so badly. He's starting on finger foods and is still my absolute joy.

My daughter is, as I said, visiting with her dad...so we are praying for a good visit. She's been having a nice summer, we've been to the beach and waterparks. I still can't believe she is going into high school in the fall! She's a great daughter....I love to sing praises of her.